Compliance with Confidence

Month: July 2016

As financial reporting professionals, we frequently ask ourselves how we can be better at what we do. That’s why it’s always a good time to adopt habits that will help us improve, for the benefit of both our organization and ourselves. One way to do this is to take a more individualistic approach to one of the recent overriding industry themes: disclosure effectiveness. One of the simplest ways you can be a more effective cog in your company’s Disclosure Management Cycle is to adopt these 3 simple, yet effective time management tips.

A couple of years ago, UBS started a research project called UBS Participant Voice, a series of surveys seeking to canvas the attitudes of stock plan participants toward their equity awards (see our blog commentary on the first survey). The latest survey in the series, which obtained responses from more than 1,000 stock plan participants across a variety of industries, delivers some interesting insights into the value employees both perceive and actually get from equity awards. These insights may be useful both to equity-granting companies and to financial advisors who have clients with stock compensation.

Companies new to disclosure research – also known as public filing search – often ask us: “How will it help me?” Over the years we’ve learned that regardless of industry, having access to a robust and reliable database of publicly filed documents is a game-changer for companies. It places directly in your hands the most relevant information in the least amount of time, making you look like a superstar in front of your bosses and colleagues. Read this article for real-world examples of how disclosure research saves the day.

Have you read the recently published Global Equity Insights 2016 report? Overall conclusions within the comprehensive 33 page report are consistent with previous year’s findings that long term incentive plans are being offered by more companies and across a greater portion of the workforce than ever before – and that is translating into success. The survey was sponsored by 10 companies from various industries including Fidelity, the Global Equity Organization, hkp/// group, SAP, Siemens, and more. The survey sample includes participation from 148 large global companies from 21 different countries. 91% of those companies have a market capitalization above USD 1 billion, and 60% of the companies reported revenues of more than USD 5 billion in 2014.

XBRL quality matters, and the XBRL US Data Quality Committee (DQC) is committed to improving quality of interactive data filings submitted to the SEC by providing guidance and rules that will detect and prevent inconsistencies in XBRL data. On June 30th, 2016, the DQC announced the start of its second public exposure period for proposed rules. The recently proposed rules consist of the following guidance.

Everyone was stunned when Liam, the hard-charging chief logistics officer, suffered a heart attack at the pharmaceutical company where he works. While he’s mostly recovered, Liam is retiring on doctor’s orders and has reached out to Margaret, his company’s stock plan administrator. Liam qualifies for permanent disability, which would allow him to retire sooner than expected. The question remains how to put together the resources.

In Equilar’s recent issue of C-Suite Magazine, Dan Martec, Editor-in-Chief, discusses the future of shareholder engagement and the impact on companies. In his article, Be Prepared to Perform, Martec explains that while typically 75% of companies pass their Say-on-Pay vote, shareholders will continue to demand more transparency. And because there is a concern about the shift in balance of power, identifying and addressing shareholder concerns is critical. Here are a few ways to be prepared.

Last week Certent announced its acquisition of DisclosureNet, a provider of software-as-a-service solutions that improve the quality of external and internal reporting by enabling peer comparisons and analysis, access to accounting standards, and quantitative benchmarking. The acquisition of DisclosureNet further expands Certent’s current financial compliance capabilities which streamline the SEC and SEDAR reporting process, improve productivity, and strengthen controls and collaboration.